Rewatching Takane no Hana

 

I sat down to rewatch Takane no Hana on prime and could not stop watching. Nojima Shinji's dialogue is amazing. The dialogue literally sings. It not only looks beautiful, but I am captivated by every single spoken word in Takane no Hana. It is the type of dialogue you'd imagine every actor in Japan would kill to be able to speak the words on tv.

Mineta Kazunobu was at the peak of his powers after Kiseki no Hito. Nojima Shinji was a genius naming the main character Pooh and talking about how girls would have a teddy bear covered with saliva only to be tossed aside once they grow up. All teddy bear allegories correspond with Pooh's role as the bear to heal Momo's heart.

Is this Ishihara Satomi's best acting job ever? Was this her career defining role? Tsukishima Momo, the untouchable flower recovering from being left at the altar is a character that is not easily forgotten. 

I think Yoshine Kyoko is perfectly cast as the younger sister who is a lot more innocent. Kohinata Fumiyo did an excellent job as the evil dad. I finished 10 episodes in no time. 

My only complaint is Karina was a waste of space and time. Her being a test for Pooh after he had been dumped was stupid. Karina was a time wasting side trip that messed up an otherwise immaculate pacing of the show. If she were that important of a friend, Karina would have been in the story since the beginning.

I did not give Takane no Hana a must watch last time but on a second rewatch, Takane no Hana is an amazing show. My copy of the show is only a 480p so I am going to go look for a quality rip after this. Must watch! Interesting to note the prime version is missing the ending song that was present in the original Japan version. On a side note, maybe it is time to download at least 720p version of jdoramas that I really like instead of watching new ones.

Jmovie review: Karaoke Iko! / Let's go karaoke!

 

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Karaoke Iko! is a bout a kid, Oka who is in final year of his junior high choir group, facing the prospect of his voice breaking and not being able to sing the soprano part anymore. Oka runs into Narita Kyoji played by Ayano Go, a yakuza who needs to improve his singing so that he does not get last in his boss's annual birthday karaoke event and gets tattooed.

THE GOOD

+ Karaoke Iko! is a feel good music jmovie by director Yamashita Nobuhiro who also directed Linda Linda Linda.

+ You can tell Ayano Go is having a great time hamming up for the camera!

+ Love the choice of music in the movie and the scene with all the yakuza purposely butchering all the famous songs is funny.

+ Yoshine Kyoko is in it as the music teacher.

+ It is a beautiful coming of age story with heart.

+ I love who they cast as Ayano Go's boss.

+ I was wondering how the movie would do an ending with two different performances and then I realised that this movie has been all about making me want to see that one performance.

THE BAD

- Nothing

SUMMARY

Karaoke Iko! is not cinematic perfection like Swing Girls was but it is feel good fun. I guarantee you will be looking for the Little Glee Monster cover of the song as the credits roll. Very watchable. Easily found on the high seas on torrent galaxy etc.

Octo: Kanjo Sosakan Shinno Akari Episodes 3~6

The one good thing I can say about Octo is that I liked the ending of episode 4. Similar to the ending of episode. I like my stories a bit twisted.

That being said, I am dropping Octo because I can't stand the gimmick. Iitoyo Marie drawing emotions every time they interview a suspect is just annoying instead of focusing on clues or their reactions. 

Watching Octo is a chore. I would rather watch any episode of Aibo. Hell, I would watch any episode of Shinzanmono. I just wanted Octo to be a police procedural that did not bore me and it turned out to be exactly that. 

Obviously something worked because there is a second season of Octo but as soon as I publish this, I am deleting the whole thing from my HD. I don't care about who killed Iitoyo's family. I just want to be free from this utterly boring police procedural relying on a one trick gimmick. Do not watch.

Rokunin no Usotsuki na Daigakusei / 6 lying University Students jmovie review

The premise of the movie Rokunin no Usotsuki na Daigakusei is that 6 uni students are applying for a job at a prestigious IT company. Everyone has their own special skills and they were told to work on a project proposal together and everyone got along and worked together as a team hoping that all 6 would be able to get in the company together.

Half way, the company emails everyone and tells that they only have 1 position open so only 1 of the 6 can get the job. The 6 students gather the next day at a meeting room in the company and are told by HR who are observing that the students have to decide amongst themselves who is the most suitable person for the job within the time limit of 6 hours? (can't remember exactly)

The students decided that they would vote for one person every hour who they thought was most suitable and no one could vote for themself. After the first round of voting, Hamabe Minami notices a huge envelope with 6 small envelopes containing the worst lie/secret of each of the 6 people in the room. 

Rokunin no Usotsuki na Daigakusei is a closed room mystery box as the 6 people try to decide who the vote for and whether or not to open the mystery envelopes. It is a fun movie as each envelope is opened, you try to figure out whether the secret is true and who is the mastermind using the envelopes to win the votes.

Akaso Eiji's super idealistic leader character can be annoying especially when he pleads with everyone not to open the envelopes. The story is about how no one can know anyone from interviews and I know people who are good at interviews but are bad at work but that's why there are probation periods, as long as management has the balls to do it.

The thing about Rokunin no Usotsuki na Daigakusei is that the twist is interesting but the ending got a 'so what?' from me. Nice puzzle box but I do not care about the reveal in that it does not really have any consequence. I don't dislike the movie but I would not recommend anyone watch it. Meh from me.

On a side note, the movie I wanted to watch during this trip was Umi no Chinmoku starring Motoki Masahiro and plenty of my favourite actors but I think there was only 1 noon show. I like going to an early morning screening, have early lunch and can do whatever I want instead of not being able to do anything in the morning having to kill time for a noon showing.

Another thing is the cinema showed the trailer for the Oshi no Ko movie so I know what happens in the tv series and it is seriously WTF. I don't think I want to try the series anymore.

Jmoview review: Shoutai

Shoutai is the movie version of the  Kame WOWOW series that showed he could actually act if he had a good script. This time the star of the story is Yokohama Ryusei who was in The Journalist. Like the WOWOW series, Shoutai starts off with a prisoner escape except this one is a lot bloodier with more action with the main character Kaburagi stabbing his tongue whereas in the WOWOW one he just climbed out the window at a public toilet.

Anyway, Shoutai is about a young man Kaburagi falsely imprisoned who escapes to prove his innocence. It is basically The Fugitive with a young man instead of a doctor. The first thing that really stood out to me was the disguise for Kaburagi as this labourer aka his first job after escaping was really, really bad. 

He looked almost comical, like someone purposely wearing a bad disguise whereas the WOWOW disguise was convincingly dirt and unkempt. The story was about Kaguragi helping out his fellow labourers with his knowledge of the law.

I was ready to hate on the movie for the first bad disguise and proclaim the WOWOW series victorious but I started enjoying the movie more and more. Yoshioka Riho is good as the editor at the magazine where Kaburagi finds work.

The actions scenes are much better than WOWOW with a higher budget of course. I really like the one shot where Kaburagi escapes from Yoshioka Riho's apartment by jumping from the balcony onto the top of a car, limping to a bridge and jumping down a river. It looked very good.

Yamada Takayuki is the stern faced Tommy Lee Jones character; the police officer chasing Kaburagi who starts to doubt Kaguragi is guilty. Yamada's performance is just OK and his role is nothing to write about. Kaburagi keeps moving from job to job trying and helping people who believe in his innocence.

The only thing missing from the movie is the one where Kaburagi infiltrates a religious organisation but everything else from the WOWOW series is there. The cinema was filled with female viewers and you could hear the sniffling during the strong ending.

I took a quick look at the WOWOW series again and the movie just looks so much better. The story is an excellent one about a convict trying to prove his innocence. I prefer Kame's acting for Kaburagi but everything else, the movie does a better job. Watchable, crowd pleasing movie. Watch the WOWOW series if you have not first.

Japan 2024 Trip 2: Day 10-13

Went back to NHK building next day. You can see Kokura castle from the building.

Main reason was to try butandonya TonTon!

Not bad butadon. A bit dry but definitely worth the money. Would try again.

Hikaru Kimi E poster at NHK building.

Went to book off at ChaCha Town because a complete manga had caught my attention.

And I bought the complete Mezon Ikkoku set wide edition. It is a kanzenban (complete) edition which means it is lightly larger than regular manga size. I prefer to buy kanzenban editions because they are easier to read and better to admire the air. 

I am also looking at buying a futon mattress and checking out the ones from Nitori.

and from Don Quixote. The Muji futons are crazy expensive.

You can never go wrong with Matsuya's double karubi teishoku.

Went with friend to this called Okonomiyaki Daruma.

However, we were not here for okonomiyaki but for monjayaki. That is half a tako-rice at the bottom right which is an okinawan food.

First time having monjayaki. What you do is let it cook then move the side and then use a small scrapper to scrap the burnt bits off the teppan. 

Finished it off with yakisoba.

Really like the super showa interior of Daruma.

Manga soukou aka Manga Warehouse is Disneyland for people like me. 

Went to sumibiyki Ichikizuna which was a yakitori place where you grilled the meats like a yakiniku. That my friends, is the first raw deer/shika meat that I have ever eaten and it was good.

This was stewed ox tongue and was very good.

Chicken parts for grilling. Not as good as yakiniku but still good.

Breakfast from bakery called Serio.

Jujutsu Kaisen pop up store at Marui, Hakata station.

Some Jujutsu Kaisen goods.

Christmas event at Daimaru in Fukuoka. There were an army of girls lining up to take selfies with a bunch of boy band members.

I waited until 7pm to eat at Issou in Nakasu. There was already a line before opening most of them were people who worked in Nakasu so it was a very colourful wait.

I wonder what the selling point of the next Atelier game will be?

I love getting a warm lemon drink from vending machine in winter.

Had to get Alan Wake 2 from Yodobashi. Very hard to find any copies anywhere else which means it is not popular and Bic Camera was more expensive. Not looking forward to FFXVI since it has turned into DMC but I have been told the graphics are worth seeing.

I managed to get 11 street passes in Kyushu which was more than I expected.

My last meal in Japan from Tonkatsu Akari at Solaria Plaza. 

All the shops in Solaria Plaza were crazy expensive but the food at the top floor were decently priced!

The toku atsugiri (special thick cut) roast was very very good. Definitely will be back!

New Abe Hiroshi movie about a hostage situation at tv station's newsroom. Will write about the 2 movies I saw later.

From Fukoka International airport. Goodbye Kyushu. So many things I wanted to eat but there is never enough time. I wanted to try Mohican ramen and I didn't even go to Hacchan! To be honest, I had to much Hakata Ramen in the middle and had to stop for a while. Endless amazing food to eat in Kyushu and now I have to pretend Japanese food doesn't exist.